Iffy Interactions

Growing up inn the suburbs of Washington, D.C., Aleisha has never let distance stop her from enjoying Walt Disney World vacations. From an early age, whether it be on a family vacation or tagging along with a friend on her vacation, she fell in love with the magic and the joy that Disney brought. Now making her own memories as a DVC member with a Star Wars obsessed little boy, she tries to capture the same magical feelings into every day life. She has quickly established a reputation with friends, relatives and coworkers as a real-life Belle. Always with a book in her hand and available to help others plan their magical Disney vacations.

Beyond Disney, Aleisha is a lover of all genres of music; craves a good concert from time to time, considers her food allergies a blessing rather than a curse and can be seen at the good old hockey game during the NHL season.

One of my favorite things about Walt Disney World is the character interaction. While all of our character interactions over the years have been memorable, some of those memories don’t have all of us feeling the magic in the right way.

This past trip, as we were roaming Disney’s Hollywood Studios, my son was cornered by two Stormtroopers. Now if you know my son, you would know that he pretty much eats, sleeps and breathes Star Wars. So when they cornered him, he was a bit star struck and a little overwhelmed. And maybe, a little scared-though at 8, he didn’t want to admit it-as we walked into Star Wars Launch Bay, the pair of Stormtroopers followed Logan starting a conversation with my young Jedi.

From here we were ecstatic, for a boy who has been in to Star Wars his entire life, this is what he should dream of. Of course some things are not always what they seem, and not all things work out like you think.

As we were hanging around the entrance of Launch Bay, two of the Stormtroopers returned to the area from outside. As they did, they saw our son, Logan, standing there with a nervous look on his face. They approached him and asked in their demanding tone to see his identification. He didn’t quite get it at first until they pointed to his MagicBand. The Troopers took it off of his wrist and turned it over to see the inscription. Little did they know (or Logan remember) that we had inscribed his MagicBand not with his actual name, but one of his favorite Star Wars character’s name: Obi-Wan. Both Troopers were alarmed and “demanded” he come with them to see Kylo Ren. Logan acted a bit panicked and was hesitant. While they didn’t whisk him off to see their commander, one of the Troopers pretended to throw Logan’s MagicBand into the nearest garbage can. It was convincing enough to really cause Logan concern and run to the other side of the room and not come back until they retrieved his Band. Low and behold, the Stormtrooper in question had palmed the MagicBand all along and hadn’t actually discarded it. Once they realized how upset my son was, they quickly gave the MagicBand back, and went on their way, leaving my Jedi to recoup.

Maybe it wasn’t everything I thought it was going to be. But one of my favorite things about character interactions around any Disney Parks park is the ability for every character to read the kid’s need. These Stormtroopers discovered that my son may be 8, and talk well beyond his years, but when it comes down to it, he is still a little boy. The moment he got scared, they backed off.

Have you ever had a character interaction that didn’t quite go like you thought?